Where's the Beach?

NotSickNotSick Remember how I said yesterday started off at 70 degrees? This morning it was 25 degrees. It makes it so difficult to just get used to one temperature when it's all over the board. At least it was sunny and not windy. I had packed my gym bag with clothes to go for a run actually. The high was supposed to be about 45 degrees. For me, chilly, but I was so wanting to get outside. My body had a different plan for me though. I have been sneezing my head off for the past couple of days, then the sinus headache came on yesterday. This morning it hit me...I'm getting sick, but doing the "NotsickNotsick" chant of course. I'm really hoping it's just allergies. I don't think I can blame it on the temperature swings, but I think I'm going to anyway ;-) Needless to say, today was a rest day. I had absolutely no energy. And if I had tried to do anything, snot would have been flying. Gross, but true. I did find some Mucinex to take, but I'm not...

Biceps & Spin Today was wet, gray, flat out dreary. I joked that I was going to have to swim across the street to the gym to hit up spin. Thank goodness for rainboots. Though, Jason didn't seem to think that rainboots paired well with running shorts and my long-sleeved t-shirt that I wore out of the gym. Men.... ;-) Before class, I was able to get in biceps. I did a giant set of 3 x (6, 8, 8) Dumbbell curls Hammer curls Incline curls Spin class was a goody today. Definitely put me in a better mood despite the gray skies I was staring out at. I have a feeling that tomorrow my legs will be feeling today. I am hoping to maybe get out for a run tomorrow depending on what happens with the weather. Otherwise, maybe leg day. I am seriously missing running though. Chili & Nail Polish I really wasn't sure what I wanted to make or even felt like eating for dinner. It was just so nasty out. Soup sort of sounded good. Jason was wanting the Spicy White Chili . I really...

Gym Day on Gray Day I guess I am more worn out than I realized - plus less sciatica pain to wake me up means I slept straight through until just after 5 this morning. That never ever happens. No complaints mind you. Even though yesterday's run was less than stellar, I am certainly glad I didn't have to do it today. The cold front that was supposed to push through last night was apparently running late. So instead of rain last night, we had wind, gray skies, and drizzle all day today. It started off at close to 60 at about 7 am, but steadily dropped. So definitely would have been a treadmill run and I think that would have been worse. I did hit the gym, but for weights only. I did warm up for about 15 minutes on the elliptical though. I did supersets for back and triceps (3x8) with some ab work done at the end. SS#1 Underhand barbell rows Overhead triceps extension SS#2 Double-arm rows Double-arm kickbacks SS#3 Pullovers Dips It was a pretty decent workout. ...

Another Plan B Workout  Wow, the weather here is just killing my running plans. Not only is it almost 40 degrees cooler than it was Monday, but 30 mph gusting winds? Really???? Mother Nature is not being very nice to me. I was planning on getting in an easy, 5-mile run. And while I've run in rain, sleet, ice, storms, I had zero desire to run in today's insane winds. So, Plan B workout again today. I wasn't going to do spin again until after the half. But, considering Mother Nature's antics, I decided to go for it (spin that is). I was missing the class anyway, so this kind of worked out. I did do 2 miles on the treadmill before class. I know, crazy, but I'm trying really hard to stick to the planned mileage for the week. I will fall a little short, but not too bad. I gotta say, again, spin kicked my butt. I don't know if blaming the half marathon training really is valid, but it's all I can think of that's making anything other than the runs feel so...

Weights & Elliptical on Wednesday  Today I had thought about running 3-4 miles of tomorrow's planned run making tomorrow's run with intervals shorter. But, my legs were against that idea. So, I decided to hit the gym after work (despite the fact that it was way to nice out to be inside). I wanted to get back done, and had thought I might do chest as well to be done with weights for the week. In the end, I just did back and abs. I started with 20 minutes on the elliptical to warm up before hitting the weights. I really only planned on 10, but someone was using the barbell I needed. This is yet another tweaked version of my last back workout from Cathe's STS rotation. It was done at 4 sets of 8 reps at my 1RM. Pullovers Single-arm rows Underhand barbell rows (I omitted the single-arm horizontal rows) Assisted pullups - 2x6 (I tried to go as light as I could with the assist) I also did some ab work before finishing up with about 5 minutes more on the elliptic...

Paella Follow Up As I mentioned yesterday, we had a birthday party to attend. The theme was being a paella party, so I volunteered to bring a vegetarian version. However, I've never had paella before and had no idea if I'd even like it. I'm really not much of a rice eater either, so anyone who really knows me would think it an odd choice. But, I'm always up for trying a new recipe, so why not. Vegetarian Paella Notes, I believe that I added in the peas too soon so they turned brown. So if you aren't using quick-cooking brown rice, then don't pay attention to the cooking times shown in the original recipe. You'll also need more liquid as well. As for the flavor, I thought it was a little bland. Again, no idea what to expect. It wasn't bad by any means, but maybe my feeling towards rice skews my judgment a bit. Jason said it was really good, as did anyone who tried it. I do think that I could try adding flavors used in chorizo, like paprika, to give it m...

Super Workout This morning I managed to sleep in a bit, 8:30. Is it sad that that was a goal? I got up and piddled around a bit, eating a healthy-sized bowl of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest shredded wheat with vanilla soy milk before starting off the day with my workouts. Today's weight workout was 2 sets of 18 reps supersetting the exercises. The goal was to increase weights by 1.25-2%. SS #1 Quads - Static Lunges Hamstrings - Deadlifts SS#2 Biceps - Hammer Curls Shoulders - Lateral Raises SS#3 Back - Double Arm Rows Chest - Chest Flyes I was able to increase my weights for all exercises. It was a really good weight day for me. I felt totally pumped. After weights, I did Shock Cardio HiiT Pyramid . Talk about burning out your legs! I also did a pilates-based abs from Abs Circuit , stretched and called it quits. Super (Chili) Sunday Jason and I had a few errands to run. Had I known that everyone and their entire extended family would be shopping at Kroger today, I would have held ou...

Pizza Follow-Up I wanted to do a follow-up on the pizza dough. Last night I substituted 1/2 a cup of spelt flour for 1/2 a cup of all-purpose flour. Normally the crust ends up thick and chewy. Last night, however, it was thin and crispy. The dough seemed a lot less glutenous so it rolled out super easy and super thin. My assumption is that it was the addition of the spelt. Now, that's not to say it was bad by any means. In fact, Jason seemed much happier with this crust. I was unaware that he was wanting thin crust. So, now I know that when I want a good thin crust pizza, substitute some all-purpose with spelt. I am afraid that if I used all spelt, it'd fall completely flat though. Saturday Workout I almost opted out of my workouts today. Still feeling stuffy and out of sorts. Once I got going with the weights, though, I did start to feel better. There's a lot said for workout endorphins!! I also tried Shock Cardio Step Moves finally. It was a fun step workout, super danc...

My workouts this week have been highly leg focused thus far. Sunday was legs and then I did a spin class on Monday. I thought I might take today as a rest day, but I went ahead and did a step workout and abs from my library of Cathe Friedrich workouts - Step Jump and Pump/Step Blast . The next part of the evening involved refueling! After unseasonal upper 60's this weekend, the temperatures are finally starting to drop. Today we didn't reach 50 and tomorrow is supposed to be 45. Needless to say, I was thinking along the lines of something warm and cozy for dinner tonight. I had half of a butternut squash that needed to be used and a couple of different recipes for a Black Bean and Butternut Squash Chili. I didn't have all the ingredients to fulfill one recipe or the other, so I'm melding them together and creating my own. Black Bean and Butternut Squash Chile Ingredients : 1 tsp (or less) Olive oil  1 small yellow onion, diced 1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced ...